Migrating contacts from Hubspot

You can migrate contacts from Hubspot to your ActiveCampaign account. This article will share some tips from our Migration Team, as well as a quick walkthrough of how to export your contacts from Hubspot and import them into ActiveCampaign.

If you're still contemplating whether or not to migrate from HubSpot, see our helpful comparison guide.

Terminology

Before we begin, it’s important to point out the different terminologies that both platforms use:

Cleaning your import file

Aside from terminology, the other main difference to point out is the number of Contact Properties, or Fields each platform offers. Hubspot has around 200 standard Contact Properties, whereas ActiveCampaign offers six default fields with the option to create as many custom fields as you like.

The six standard fields that ActiveCampaign offers are: Full Name, First Name, Last Name, Phone, and Organization.

We recommend reviewing your Hubspot export and pare down the number of fields to only what you need. This will keep you and your team more organized and it will be easier for you to locate data.

For more tips on cleaning up your file, be sure to check out our troubleshooting imports article.

Learn how to import contacts with multiple tags.
Learn how to import contacts with multiple values in the same field.

Save two versions of your file

Make sure to save your original Hubspot export file and then create a new, clean file for importing. That way, if at a later date you find that you do need certain fields in ActiveCampaign, you can easily re-import your contacts with those fields. Just make sure to check the “Update Contacts” field on the import page.

Export all contacts with all fields

1. Log into your Hubspot account.
2. From the main dashboard, click “Contacts” located in the top navigation.
3. Select “Contacts” from the drop-down menu.
4. You will be directed to the Contacts page. Click the “Options” menu, then click “Export.”

Export contacts with specific fields

1. Log into your Hubspot account.
2. From the main dashboard, click “Contacts” located in the top navigation.
3. Select “Contacts” from the drop-down menu.
4. Click “Add filter” and select the properties you wish to export. 
5. You then have the option to export directly with those properties, or save the filter and export later.

Read more about exporting your lists from Hubspot. 

Import your contacts into ActiveCampaign

Once you have exported your contacts, you'll want to remove any unwanted fields and save your file as a CSV file. Click here to learn how to save your spreadsheet as a CSV.

After that you'll want to create a list in ActiveCampaign to add your contacts to if a list doesn't exist in your account already. To create a list, go to the Lists overview page and click “Add New List.”

A "Create New List" pop up window will open. Complete the fields provided and click “Create List.”

Now, you're ready to import your file. To get started:

1. Click "Contacts" located on the left menu.
2. Click the "Import" button.
3. Click the "Import from File" button.
4. A file browser will appear. Navigate to the file you wish to import and select it.
5. Your file will process, and you will be redirected to the import screen. Map the columns in your file to fields in your account by clicking the dropdown for each field.
   • If you don't wish to import data from a column, select "Do Not Import this Field"
   • To create a new field directly from the import page, click "[Add New Field]" and follow the prompts
6. Optional: Click each list that you want to add contacts to. You can add contacts to multiple lists.
7. Optional: Type the tags you wish to apply to all contacts once they're imported.
   As a best practice, you may want to apply a tag that indicates the source of these contacts. That way, you can easily find this group if you need to make any bulk edits to them later.
8. Click the "Import Options" dropdown and click the "Import As Active Contact" option.
9. Optional: Click the “Update Existing Contacts” box. This will look for a matching email address in your account and add any additional contact data from your file into the contact record.
10. Click the "Import Now" button once you're done configuring settings.

The length of time it takes to import contacts will depend on the size of the CSV file. 

When finished, you can view your import results.